FIRST Team stories inspire

Need a story that will inspire you and rekindle your faith in humanity?  Then spend some time hanging around a FIRST event.

Every time I find myself at an event - whether it's a small, regional qualifier, or a high-profile event like the World Championship - I hear amazing stories about life-changing projects undertaken by FIRST Teams and students.

Many of these stories are about FIRST Teams having a huge impact on the home front.  Many others highlight the global reach of the four programs.  At this year's World Championship, I heard two amazing and completely different stories about FTC Teams having an impact at home and abroad that I'd like to share.

The first came to me through a couple of our dedicated volunteers - Andy Marshall, from National Instruments, and Luan Heimlich, our Australian Affiliate Partner from Macquarie University.  They conveyed to me a story from the 2013 Asian-Pacific Invitational, a top-ranked team chose a lower-ranked team from another country and went on to become the winning alliance.  That lower-ranked team happened to be from a reform school, one step away from prison.  Upon their victory, however, they returned to what was essentially a hero's welcome.  Those team members are now on track to leave reform school and re-enter society as productive individuals!

I heard another story about Iowa's FTC Team 5466, The Combustible Lemons.  This team is starting the NXT Re-purpose Project; an initiative aimed at getting unneeded NXTs into the hands of kids who wouldn't normally have access to robotics learning.  Their test run of this project involved sending a kit, which included a solar-charging backpack and an old FLL field setup kit, to a school they are connected with in Ghana.  After success there, they are moving forward with the project and are asking other FIRST Teams to connect with them to donate old NXTs, sensors, laptops, etc., that will then be donated to a community in need.  

     

The Combustible Lemons are currently focusing on community organizations in the U.S. that work with under-served populations.  To learn more about this project, visit www.ftc5466.com.

Of course, these are just two of the hundreds, if not thousands, of amazing stories that come out of the FIRST programs every year.  If you've heard a great story like these, I want to hear it!  Leave a comment below, e-mail stories@usfirst.org or Tweet to @FTCTeams.